All My Blogs

Rough skinned newt photographed near Duncan on Vancouver Island, 2018. Although it has been over seven years since I caught the rough-skinned newt in the above photos, I can still remember the event with complete clarity.  My friend, Mike Lynch, and I were walking on a trail near his home in Duncan.  It was a cool but sunny afternoon and we had gotten to the end of a trail and were headed back.  In front of me, on the path, was a most interesting creature.  I had never actually seen one, but I knew it was a rough-skinned newt. Rough-skinned newts are salamanders, but unlike any other salamander species found in B.C., let alone Canada.  I have caught red-backed salamanders, long-toed salamanders, north western salamanders, and ensatina salamanders.  They all have damp skin and require a moist environment to live in, much as frogs do.  Woodland salamanders, like ensatina, are terrestrial and do not live in water at all.  They even breed on land, but...

Western toad - photographed in Waterton National Park, June 29, 2025 "Don't pick up that toad!  You'll get warts!"  Have you ever heard that one?  Call it folklore or an urban legend, it has no bearing in reality.  Warts are caused by particular viruses (HPV -  human papillomavirus) that infect the skin and are typically found on hands, feet, and arms.  There are over 100 strains of HPV, and only Type 6 and 11 are responsible for the sexually transmitted type.  Toads neither have warts nor do they cause them.  They are not carriers of HPV (notice that the first word is Human). So, what are those bulging bumps on the back of a toad - especially just behind the eyes?  Those are parotoid glands.  They are easily breakable and release a toxic creamy substance that will likely surprise anything that tries to eat it.  There are a variety of chemicals, the most toxic being  bufadienolides .  These are a type of cardiac glycoside...

Female flower crab spider feeding on a bumble bee - Cypress Hills, Alberta I was in a grassy field brimming with flowers, the most conspicuous being blanket flowers.  The large yellow-petalled bloom was a common attractant to many insects - a lot of them pollinators, such as bumble bees and butterflies.  It was a remarkable opportunity to capture photos of them doing nature's work.  But it seems that such actions were not without danger, as one bumble bee in particular found out. I noticed it first as an oddity amongst the blooms.  A black blob hanging underneath one of the blanket flowers.  To investigate, I turned the flower over to reveal its undersides, and discovered that the blob was in fact a bumble bee.  It was in its death throws - one of its legs was still moving.  And attached to its abdomen was a large yellow and red spider. The flower-crab spider is an ambush predator.  It hides on flowers that are likely to be visited by insect polli...

Wild lupine leaves after a summer rain Lupines have a waxy cuticle on the surface of their leaves.  Epicuticular wax is common in many plants, which is why rain beads the way it does on their surfaces.  The drops, which are circular, appear so because of the high cohesive properties of water - the tendency for water to stick to itself.  This is why you get a stream of water when you turn on a tap, why water falls from the sky as drops, and why water has such a strong surface tension. The waxy surface of plants exists for a number of reasons.  It prevents water from leaving the plant through evaporation.  Water certainly leaves plants regularly, but through an active process called transpiration.  The cuticle also protects the plant against insect attacks, pathogens, and environmental factors like UV radiation.  Wax is hydrophobic, meaning that it repels water.  When you wax a car, water beads up on its surface.  The wax helps prevent substanc...

Left:  the original image  Right:  the same frame but the scene enlarged by 60%. I wrote about the photos I took at this farm near Cypress Hills a few weeks ago; you can view that blog here .  The farm was an amazing find; one steeped in history that has long been abandoned.  Around the place was evidence of a life once lived; a washing machine drum, a wooden bed frame (possibly) - an exploration could have turned up more but time was limited.   I stepped inside the shed with the window pointed at the farmhouse.  I wanted enough depth of field to get the frame and the opposing building in focus, so I chose a 36 mm focal length with an aperture of f/16.  I couldn't back up any more due to the debris on the floor and didn't want to disturb any wildlife that may be under it.  If I could have backed up a bit and zoomed in with a 58 mm focal length (and a smaller aperture to compensate for the reduced depth of field), I may have gotten an ima...

An unknown caterpillar species, first of its kind I have ever seen. Identifying caterpillars is not always easy.  There are some good websites out there, such as the caterpillar identification website  which may help in identifying a species.  There is also Google Lens, an image search engine that has worked for me before.  Unfortunately, neither of these helped me in identifying the species of moth (likely) that this larva belongs to.  Then there are the Facebook groups such as the  Caterpillar identification of North America  group.  However, if you are not a member, the administrators may not let you post.  I have tried, I have not yet heard back from them. What I do know about the above beast is that it is a skeletonizing caterpillar.  If you look at the head (yellowish end), you will notice dark green and light green patches.  The light green patches is where the caterpillar has eaten.  it doesn't eat the whole leaf, just ...

Eight years after the 2017 wildfire in Waterton. For most humans, nature works too slowly, but it does a better job. Late in the summer of 2017 there was a forest fire encompassing much of Waterton National Park.  The Kenow fire, as it is known, started from lightening strikes in the area at the very end of August and grew alarmingly fast.  It covered almost 40% of the park and, in total, affected about 35,000 ha of land.  If you want to read up on it and see some excellent images, click here . The simple fact is that nature is all about destruction and renewal.  It takes place continuously, tiny changes that are hardly recognizable, with the occasional massive wiping of the proverbial slate.  Forest fires, landslides, earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanoes, and the ever scouring of moving water alters the land in a never-ending cycle. Most of these destructive acts take place in the blink of an eye.  And yet, with each destructive act, life manages to return, ...